Education in Algeria: school stages, the Baccalaureat and university orientation

In short

Algeria's school system is run by the Ministry of National Education, and universities fall under the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The key national exam is the Baccalaureat, usually called the BAC. It is taken at the end of secondary school, and its result decides which university fields a student can enter. There is no separate entrance exam for most public university places, so the BAC average and stream carry most of the weight.

School stages

Basic education lasts nine years and is compulsory. It has two parts:

• Primary school (ecole primaire): five years, starting at the age of six.
• Middle school (enseignement moyen): four years, which end with the Brevet d'Enseignement Moyen, known as the BEM.

Secondary school (enseignement secondaire) follows and lasts three years, in a general or technological lycee, or in vocational training. Pupils who succeed in the BEM and have the right marks move on to the lycee. Progression between the main stages is controlled by exams and by school averages.

The school year starts in September and ends in June. Most schooling is public and free, and private schools also exist. Arabic is the main language of instruction, Tamazight is taught in some areas, and French is taught as the first foreign language, with English added in the middle years.

The Baccalaureat and its streams

At the lycee, students first follow a common first year and then enter a stream. The streams in general secondary education include experimental sciences, mathematics, technical mathematics, management and economics, letters and philosophy, and foreign languages. Technological lycees prepare students in engineering fields. Each stream has its own subjects and coefficients, which are weights that make some subjects count more than others in the final average.

The BAC is organised each year by the national examination office and takes place around June, after candidates register in advance. Candidates sit written papers in the subjects of their stream. Students who do not succeed can try again in a later year as private candidates.

From the BAC to university

After the results, new graduates use a national online platform of the Ministry of Higher Education. The steps are:

1. Pre-registration: the student enters the BAC details and ranks a list of wishes, which are fields of study and institutions.
2. Orientation: the ministry matches each wish against the student's BAC average, the stream and the places available in each programme. Fields with few seats ask for higher averages.
3. Results: the student consults the placement result on the platform.
4. Final registration: this is now done online, and it includes paying the registration fees by card and receiving a digital student card.

Public university education is free of tuition fees. Universities offer the LMD system of licence, master and doctorate. Some fields, such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and engineering, use longer courses, and the national higher schools (ecoles superieures) admit students by their own conditions, often through a preparatory cycle and a competitive exam after two years.

Studying in Algeria

The language question is important. Many scientific and technical university courses are taught in French, while some humanities and law courses are taught in Arabic, and English is spreading as a language of research. A student from the Arabic-taught stream may therefore need extra effort in French before the first year of science or medicine.

A study plan for the Algerian route:

1. Learn the coefficients of your stream and give the most revision time to the subjects that weigh the most.
2. Work through past BAC papers by year, in the same time allowed on the exam day, and correct them against the official marking schemes.
3. In mathematics and physics, practise full exercises in the style of the BAC, which often have several linked questions, and write each step clearly.
4. For philosophy, build a small set of arguments and examples you can use in an essay, and practise an introduction, a development and a conclusion.
5. Strengthen French or English vocabulary early if your future course will be taught in that language.
6. In the final months, stop learning new material, take timed full papers and sleep well before each paper.

Keep the exact calendar, registration steps and conditions in view by reading the official announcements each year, because the dates and procedures are published only shortly before they happen.

Preparing with GetMyMockTest

GetMyMockTest offers free practice for the exams below, with the questions written in French for the Algerian exams. Check the official format with each organiser.

• Baccalauréat Algérien (BAC): mathematics, physics and chemistry, natural sciences, history and geography, French and English, with timed mock tests and flashcards.
• BEM (Brevet d'Enseignement Moyen): mathematics, physical sciences, natural sciences, French, English, history and geography, and civic education for the end of middle school.
• General knowledge of Algeria: history, geography and culture.
• IB Diploma: free practice for students in international schools or planning an international curriculum.
• IELTS and TOEFL: English-language practice for students who plan to study abroad.
• SAT: practice for students applying to universities that ask for it.

Every question, explanation, mock test and flashcard deck is free.